New health care law could be 'blessing or a curse'

Boiling down the 2,700-page Affordable Care Act into an hour-long conversation is no small task, but that’s what the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce sought to do Tuesday at “Health Care Reform and You, 101.”

Boiling down the 2,700-page Affordable Care Act into an hour-long conversation is no small task, but that’s what the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce sought to do Tuesday at “Health Care Reform and You, 101.”

The breakfast meeting brought together chamber members, business advocates, insurance specialists and medical professionals to explore how the new law will affect employers and employees in the next several years, as major parts of the law start to take effect.

“It’s incredibly complex,” the chamber’s Insurance Committee Chairman, Gary Young, said. “It’s going to be a matter of time before we know whether it’s a blessing or a curse.”

Steven Glick is president and administrator of Chamber Insurance Trust, which services businesses and insures thousands of chambers of commerce members in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

With the new law, buying insurance through an exchange will be an option, but employers will still provide some kind of subsidy or contribution to employees, Glick said.

“But not to the same way that it’s done today,” he said.

Jsoeph Brennan, vice president of public policy for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, said he’s talked to employer groups about what to expect.

“This law is so complex and changing daily that you’ve got to stay on top of it,” he said. “Most of the changes come online in January 2014, and there’s some pretty significant penalties for employers if they fail to comply.”

For employers, “there’s no mandate that says you have to have insurance, but, if you fail to offer an affordable plan ... then you can be penalized. So in a sense, it’s a mandate.”

There will be tax credits for small employers. “But in Connecticut, we don’t expect too many employers to qualify. You basically have to have an average wage level of $50,000 or less for employees to qualify.”

Panelist Peter Shea, chief medical officer and senior vice president of The William W. Backus Hospital, said while medicine has made strides in his 30 years in the profession, the level of care has failed to keep up.

“What health care has really failed to do is hold onto the basics – access, quality and cost,” he said. “Cost is really why we’re all here.”

Shea said it will be some time before it’s known if reform fixes these issues.

“That’s the million-dollar question,” he said. “It will be a rocky transition.”